


dont leave me here alone by this campfire

by katieelle



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Camping, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Self-Indulgent, showering together but in a bro way, this makes literally no sense don’t read it, why is this 5k words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 05:36:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15308610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katieelle/pseuds/katieelle
Summary: AKA I went camping for a few days and had no service or WiFi so I typed this in the notes on my phone. Here is the result.(It’s 5k words of Jeremy and Michael trying to camp, but being too in love with each other to get anything done.)





	dont leave me here alone by this campfire

Going camping in a tent at a trashy campsite just off of the Jersey Shore was definitely not part of Jeremy’s summer agenda. He’d much rather spend his summer in the pool snacking on ice pops, but somehow, Michael managed to convince him to come camping with him, telling him that they needed to do something different to celebrate their last summer before senior year.

And, despite Jeremy’s meticulous planning, everything quickly went to shit.

It started when they stopped at Walmart to pick up some last minute groceries before they were stranded in the middle of nowhere for a few days. “Okay, we have a cooler, right? We’re going to need some eggs for breakfast, maybe some hot dogs for the campfire, bread, peanut butter and jelly…” Jeremy listed off, pushing the cart through the aisles.

“Kids Cuisines,” Michael said, stopping in front of one of the freezers. He pulled out the chicken nugget edition and dropped it in the cart.

“We can’t get that,” Jeremy said. “We won’t even have a microwave!”

“I think you can eat these cold…” Michael said, inspecting the box carefully. “It doesn’t say you can’t eat them cold, so I’m gonna go ahead and assume you can.”

“You really want to eat cold chicken nuggets?” Michael stared at him blankly. “Alright. Whatever.”

They made their way through the store, with Michael constantly stopping to pick up any and all junk food he saw. (Jeremy always put it back on the shelf when he wasn’t looking, because there was no way they were going to be able to pay for all of that.) They walked past a display of sleeping bags, tents, and other camping equipment that Jeremy couldn’t identify. “You grabbed me a sleeping bag from your house, right?” Jeremy couldn’t remember the last time he needed a sleeping bag. He used to use one when he slept over at Michael’s, but they quickly turned to sharing a bed.

“Yep,” Michael answered, popping the ‘p’ sound at the end. “Do we have everything?”

It was Michael’s trip after all, so Jeremy wasn’t exactly sure how he came to be the one planning everything. Maybe it was for the best, though, because if Michael had planned it, they would have been eating Lunchables for every meal and water would have been replaced by Monster energy drinks. “I think we have enough food and water…” Jeremy said, glancing over everything in their cart for the twentieth time.

“Let’s go, then. I just want to get to the beach.”

They split the cost of their groceries and loaded everything up into Michael’s PT Cruiser with some difficulty because it was already pretty stuffed with the tent, cooler, bags of clothes, and blankets. “How much longer?” Michael asked, buckling his seatbelt.

Jeremy glanced down at the GPS on his phone. “It says we’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Great. That meant they’d get there at around 11:10 instead of 11:00 like they were supposed to. Somewhere, Jeremy must have miscalculated a time. Or they spent too long in Walmart fighting about what foods to get.

Michael started driving, which was just about the only thing he had done to help on the trip so far. The Jersey shore was, mostly, a mess, but he hoped that the campground (which he picked out, by the way) would be nicer than a boardwalk infested with drugged up partiers. So maybe sleeping in a tent wasn’t his idea of fun, but at least he had the beach to look forward to.

Jeremy glanced over to Michael, eyes trained on the backroad, careful to avoid any potholes. There had always been something about Michael that Jeremy couldn’t quite figure out. He had always felt something different sleeping next to him, getting high with him in his basement, even just playing video games all night with him. Even now, with Michael driving them to the beach and the sun glaring off of his glasses, he felt a spark of something. He’d had other friends before, granted none of those relationships had lasted as long as his one with Michael did, but he never felt the same way he did with them as he did with Michael.

He knew what a crush felt like. He’d had a crush on Christine Canigula in middle school and he’d had a crush on Brooke Lohst in sophomore year. This wasn’t a crush. It was different.

He didn’t know why.

He didn’t know if he wanted to know why.

“Is this it?” Michael asked, pulling up into a stone driveway. There were RVs and tents taking up spaces in the grass around them, so it seemed right.

“Yeah. Park here, I’ll go check us in.” Jeremy hopped out of the car and walked up the cobblestone path to the little building just at the entrance. They’d already paid online, so all he had to do was confirm his name and get the number of their lot. 24. Lot 24, he told himself over and over again in his head until he was back in the car with Michael. “We’re at lot 24,” he said, swinging the door shut behind him.

It wasn’t a very big campground, but that was okay. It meant less people and more space. Plus, there was a pool that wouldn’t be too crowded. They drove further down the driveway until they reached their square section of grass, shaded by some trees. Luckily, there was no one in the lots next to them, so they didn’t have to worry about annoying neighbors.

“Hey, is that the beach over there?” Jeremy looked to where Michael was pointing behind them, a trail that led up to a staircase over a small hill. He couldn’t see past that other than the blue sky.

“I’m pretty sure,” Jeremy said, opening up the back door. They had a lot to unpack, but it seemed like a good idea to start with the tent.

“Wanna go check it out?” Michael asked, still staring off in that direction.

Jeremy shifted through all of the stuff they packed until he caught sight of the tent. He grabbed it, tried to pull it out, but it was stuck beneath all of the other shit Michael insisted on bringing along. “Wanna help me get this set up first?” Jeremy asked, mocking his tone.

“Not really, but do I have a choice?”

“Do you want a place to sleep tonight or do you want to sleep on the ground out in the open where a bear could come over and eat us?” Reluctantly, Michael held up a few of the things the tent was stuck under so Jeremy could pull it out. A few long metal pieces fell out of the carrier it came in and Jeremy already knew this was going to be a shitshow. “Alright, what the hell are these?” Jeremy asked, holding up two of the metal pieces.

“I used to be a Boy Scout, I’ve got this,” Michael said. He kneeled down in the grass and started snapping the pieces together to form two much longer metal pieces. “Start staking the base of the tent in the ground.”

“Staking? What?” Jeremy asked. He inspected the base that Michael was talking about, but his dumbass brain still couldn’t piece together what the fuck he was supposed to do.

“You idiot,” Michael said. He pointed out the corners of the tent, dropped a few stakes on the ground, and handed Jeremy a hammer-looking thing. “Now just put those stakes through the loops and hammer them down.”

Jeremy did as he was told, hammering each corner of the tent into the ground. It seemed pretty small, but he didn’t say anything about it yet. Maybe it just looked small because it wasn’t fully set up. “Okay, now what?” he asked, pretty pleased with the work he had done so far.

“Now,” Michael said, lifting up the metal pieces he had been snapping together. There were two pieces once they were all set up, and each one curved into an arch shape. “We have to put these on the stakes so they cross over each other.” For a while, Jeremy watched Michael try to do it by himself, laughing as he kept tripping over himself and dropping the pieces. “Can you at least hold one of the sides down so it doesn’t keep falling?”

“I thought you had this under control, Boy Scout,” Jeremy teased, but he was getting eager to see the tent all set up, so he helped him out.

“Alright, now we’ve got that, so we can start putting the actual tent together.” Michael lifted up a piece of canvas in the middle and held it up to the point where the two arches crossed. There was a velcro strap in the center point of the tent that he tied around the arch. “Okay, do you get what we have to do?”

“Yes, this is a very educational tutorial,” Jeremy joked. He followed Michael’s lead, strapping each velcro piece around the arches until the tent was completely held up. And, still, it was looking pretty small. Jeremy knelt down and unzipped the door, peeking inside, thinking maybe it had some sort of TARDIS effect where it was bigger inside. Nope. “Michael, do we have two tents?”

Michael just stared at him. “Nooo,” he hummed. “Isn’t this big enough?”

“This probably can’t even fit two sleeping bags.” To prove himself, Jeremy went to pull the two sleeping bags out of the car, but he only found one. “Michael, you forgot my sleeping bag!”

“No I didn’t,” Michael argued, starting to dig around in their luggage. Jeremy waited patiently, knowing the whole time that he was right. “Alright, I did forget your sleeping bag.”

“Michael!” Jeremy whined. “What am I supposed to sleep in?”

Michael folded out his sleeping bag inside the tent and stood back to inspect it. “I mean, this sleeping bag looks pretty big…”

“I am not sharing a sleeping bag with you,” Jeremy stated. “I’ll just sleep on a blanket next to you.”

“That’s going to hurt your back and you’ll be cold,” Michael said. “Do you want to go out and buy an extra one? I’ll pay for it.”

“It’s fine. Let’s just get the rest of this shit unpacked.”

They unloaded the car, setting everything up in and around their tents. It looked like they had a lot more than what they actually had, so it didn’t take too long to get it all unpacked. The only thing they really had difficult with was deciding who got the bigger blanket. (They decided together that Jeremy should have it since he didn’t have a sleeping bag, even though Michael continued to insist that they could share one.)

And the whole time, all Jeremy could focus on was the sound of the beach. They were so close, he could hear each wave crash and smell the saltwater clearly. Every time he saw a group of people walking up the beach path with a chair, towels, and sunscreen, he got a little jealous that he wasn’t walking up their with them. He started moving a little quicker, getting more and more unorganized with each passing second.

“I’m ready to go out to the beach if you are,” Michael said, staring off in that direction again. This time, Jeremy was staring off that way, too.

“Please,” Jeremy said. They took turns going into the tent to throw on their swimming trunks, grabbed towels and sunscreen, and headed up the path.

-

It wasn’t that Jeremy was necessarily scared of the ocean. It was just that there were sharks and jellyfish and rip currents and why would he risk all of those things when he could sit back in the sand and watch people get swept under the water by the waves? He was perfectly happy relaxing on dry land. Michael, on the other hand, was not.

It took a lot of coaxing and bribing, but Michael eventually convinced him to follow him out in the water. “Michael, it’s too cold,” Jeremy complained when a wave came up on the sand and washed over his feet. And that wasn’t just an excuse to get out of it, it really was ice cold. Michael seemed pretty unphased.

“It’s not bad once you get used to it,” Michael said. He went ahead of Jeremy, wading out further into the waves and letting them crash into his body carelessly. Honestly, it looked kind of painful, and Jeremy was starting to have second thoughts about this. “Are you coming or not?” Michael called back to him.

Alright. This was fine. He could handle it. Jeremy took another few steps forward, the water splashing against his knees. A particularly large wave crashed and hit his chest, and for a few moments, he was convinced he was going to fall over like an idiot. But he didn’t, so he kept going, running through the water until he made it past the point where the waves were breaking. “Hey, hey Michael! I did it! Look, I’m in the ocean!”

Jeremy swam over to Michael, who was only a few feet ahead of him. The water was up to his waist when it was flat, but when waves rolled over, they picked him up and so his feet weren’t even touching the sand. For a few moments, he forgot all about the sharks and the jellyfish and the rip currents and he just allowed himself to float with the rhythm of the waves.

Everything was peaceful until he heard the sound of a wave crashing and looked up to see a huge wave headed his way. It was already capping off at the top, so he wouldn’t be able to just roll over it. “What the hell is this Michael? We’re going to fucking die.”

“It’s okay,” Michael said through a laugh. “When this happens, you just dive under it so you don’t get knocked over.

“What? I can’t do that! I didn’t sign up for that!”

“Either do that or drown, buddy,” Michael said, and then he was disappearing under the wave. Jeremy followed him reluctantly, taking in a huge breath of air before ducking under the wave and swimming straight through it. When he popped up out of the water, he turned around to see that the wave had passed and the ocean appeared calm once again.

“Jesus Christ, that was awful,” Jeremy yelled out to Michael. “You were going to let me drown!”

“I wouldn’t have let you drown, I would have dragged you back to shore like a lifeguard.”

“Nah, you’re way too weak for that.” In retaliation, Michael splashed water at Jeremy unexpectedly. Jeremy did it back to him, with even more water, aiming for his face sadistically.

“You can’t hit my face! That’s not allowed!” Michael yelled, but he did it back to him. It quickly turned into a war, trying to splash each other with more water and more force than the last. They only stopped their fight when they had to dive under a wave, but every time they came back up, it was back on.

Jeremy almost forgot he was out in the ocean until something touched his foot. He thrashed around in the water, desperately trying to swim away from whatever the fuck that monster was. “You okay, Jer?” Michael asked, putting their water war on hold.

“Something touched my foot!”

“Chill, it was probably just seaweed,” Michael said, trying to comfort him, but it was no use. Jeremy was still losing his shit over it, trying to swim back to the shore but getting pulled back by the currents under the waves. “Right, so we’re going in, then. Look, calm down. You’re never going to get back if you’re flailing around like a dumb fish.”

Jeremy tried to calm down, taking a deep breath. He relaxed his limbs and stood in the sand, slowly making his way back to the shallow water. Once he reached the sand again and the water was only up to his ankles, he let himself rest, hands on his knees, breathing heavy. Maybe that was why he never went in the ocean. Michael followed close behind him, struggling to keep up with how fast he was throwing himself out of the water. “Jesus, that really got you, didn’t it?”

“Uh, yeah. What if it was a shark?”

“If it was a shark you wouldn’t have both of your feet right now.”

“Whatever. I’m going to sit down.” Jeremy went back to where their towels were lying in the sand and he sat down, glaring out at the ocean hoping he could somehow convey to the Atlantic that it had ruined his entire day. Michael was on the towel next to him, staring at something, so Jeremy followed his gaze out to the coast to see what had caught his attention.

Some surfer dude with a stupid necklace and a stupid haircut and a stupid surfboard, who probably said stupid words like ‘gnarly.’ “You checking that guy out?” Jeremy asked.

“Is it that obvious?” Jeremy watched Michael scan his body with his eyes, his abs and his pecs and his muscles were all so tanned and defined. Jeremy looked down at his own chest, pale and flat, no visible muscles whatsoever. He had always been pretty scrawny, but comparing himself to that guy made him seem twenty times scrawnier. “You jealous?”

“Very,” Jeremy joked, but he didn’t know if it really was a joke or not.

“Shit, he’s looking over here,” Michael said, snapping Jeremy out of his trance. He looked up, and sure enough, surfer dude was definitely looking straight at Michael with a pearly white smile. “Oh god, he’s walking over. What do I say?”

“I don’t really care,” Jeremy said nonchalantly, looking past the guy out to the waves.

Before Michael had a chance to call Jeremy out for being an asshole, the tanned surfer dude was standing in front of them, holding his surfboard up in the sand and leaning against it. “Saw you looking at my board, do you surf?”

“Me? Surf?” Michael laughed. “Oh god, no. I was actually, uh, I was looking at you.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around, you must be from out of town. If I’d seen you here before, I definitely would’ve remembered that face.”

He probably used that line on every attractive guy that came to the beach. He had only said a few words, but he was already coming across as a total dick. “He’s taken,” Jeremy blurted, before he knew what he was saying. Michael and the surfer both looked up at him, screwing up their faces in double confusion.

“Seriously, dude? You’re gonna flirt with me right in front of your boyfriend?” Surfer said to Michael, then turned around to walk away before Michael had a chance to defend himself. “What an asshole,” he heard him mutter under his breath as he headed back towards the water.

“What the hell, Jer?” Michael asked. “He seemed so nice! Guys never talk to me!”

“He was an asshole,” Jeremy said quietly, eyes pointed down to the sand.

“If you’re uncomfortable with me flirting with guys around you then just tell me.”

“God, no, it’s not that. You know I’m not like that.” And for a few moments, he thought Michael wouldn’t believe him. He was sure Michael was going to think he was a homophobic prick and nothing would ever be the same between them because he had been a selfish asshole once.

He didn’t have to worry. Michael already understood. “You weren’t joking. When you said you were jealous, you weren’t joking.” Jeremy didn’t say anything. He knew Michael was right, and he didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. “But why?”

“It’s stupid. It’s nothing,” Jeremy said, trying to brush it off. “Let’s just try getting in the water again, but I’m not going out that far.”

“I can tell it’s not nothing. Are you jealous cause he was fit and athletic and shit? I know you don’t like it when I try to talk to you about feelings, but seriously man, you don’t have to look like that to be hot.”

“It’s not that,” Jeremy shook his head. “Okay, maybe it partly is that. But I guess I just...maybe I was a little jealous because I want you to look at me the way you looked at him.”

Jeremy wasn’t making any sense, not even to himself. He didn’t know what he was saying and he was pretty sure a camping trip with Michael was probably the worst thing he had ever done. “We’re not...dating, Jeremy.”

“Yeah, I know, and it’s not like that. It’s different. I can’t explain it exactly, but I’ve always felt something different with you. Not a crush, something more,” Jeremy said, trying to make sense of what he was feeling and put it into words. “Do you feel it, too?”

If he said no, Jeremy was going to look like an idiot and there would be no way to take back what he said. There were a few moments of silence, where Jeremy’s heart was beating louder than the crash of the waves. He was about to try to backpedal, turn around what he said into something else. It was too late, because then Michael was opening his mouth to speak, and Jeremy’s heart stopped.

“Yeah. I feel it, too.”

-

Back at the tent, they were starting to get hungry, so Michael started setting up the fire pit. He threw in a few pieces of firewood and set them up so they were leaning against each other. He added some twigs underneath of the bigger pieces of wood and started striking a match.

Jeremy got the hamburgers out of the cooler, along with the cheese, and grabbed two paper plates. He couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation they’d had earlier on the beach. He couldn’t stop thinking about how they both felt a spark of something unexplainable and what that could mean. They didn’t talk about if they were going to date, and somehow, Jeremy was glad for that. He didn’t want to date Michael. He wanted to keep being his best friend, but he also wanted to acknowledge the strength of their relationship and how it was something a little different than a friendship. They weren’t together romantically, but they weren’t just friends either. They just were, no labels defining them or messing things up.

So that was where they were and Jeremy was more than content with that.

Jeremy looked back to where the fire was supposed to be and saw Michael kneeling down in the grass, striking match after match with none of them lighting up the wood. “Having some trouble there, Boy Scout?” Michael nodded, lighting up another match only to throw it into the fire pit when the wood still didn’t catch light.

“It’s too windy,” Michael said. “Come cup your hands around it so it doesn’t go out.”

“I’m not putting my hands anywhere near a fire,” Jeremy said.

“You have to if you want to eat.” Michael tried again, but the wind blew the fire out right away. “Come on, it’s just a match. You’ll be fine.”

Jeremy sighed and reluctantly crouched down on the other side of the fire pit so he could shield the match with his hands. When Michael brought the lit match against the wood, it sparked and lit up, but then went out again. They tried a few more times, but each attempt failed miserably. “Goddammit, fuck the wind,” Michael said, throwing the box of matches to the ground.

“I hate camping,” Jeremy said, sitting in the grass with his legs crossed and his head resting in his hands. “Now what are we supposed to eat?”

“I’ll get you something,” Michael said with a smirk.

“What is it?”

“You’ll see.”

Then he disappeared into the tent and Jeremy was alone with the saddest fire he had ever seen. Who thought it would be a good idea to let two dumb teenage boys go camping together, left to fend for themselves in the wild? Nobody. Nobody thought that would be a good idea, except for Michael apparently.

Michael reappeared a few minutes later with a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. “I made yours how you like it, with way too much peanut butter,” Michael said, sitting down across from him and placing the plate between them.

Jeremy had to smile. It was pretty cute how he remembered the way he liked his PB&J sandwiches and took the time to make it his favorite way. “Thanks, Micah.” Jeremy took a bite of what was probably the best PB&J he had ever had. Or maybe it just tastes especially good because it was Michael who made it.

So they didn’t necessarily need a campfire for food, but the sun was starting to go down and it was cooling off outside. Jeremy was just wearing a T-shirt and he shivered when a gust of wind blew past. “Pretty cold out here without a fire.”

“You want my sweatshirt?” Michael asked, already taking it off.

“That’s romantic,” Jeremy joked, but he slipped it on, already feeling much warmer. It was comforting wearing it, especially since it smelled like Michael.

“How is this romantic? We’re literally sitting on the ground in the middle of nowhere without a fire eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

“Shut up, you’re gonna make it not romantic.”

They finished up their sandwiches, and the whole time they were eating, it was like they couldn’t stop watching each other. They had always been scared of showing too much affection for each other, that they’d overstep some boundary or cross a line. They didn’t have to be scared anymore, they didn’t have to hide anymore. There were no secrets.

And Jeremy felt like he could now truly admire Michael without telling himself he wasn’t allowed to think of his best friend like that. The sun was setting behind him, a beautiful orange to pink to red ombré that looked like a painting. It reflected in Michael’s glasses, lighting up his eyes. “What?” Michael asked through a laugh.

“Just you,” Jeremy said. “And the sunset, but mostly you.”

Michael still had some grains of sand left on his skin that hadn’t shaken off yet, peppering his hairline and his collarbone. He smelled like saltwater and peanut butter, a weird combination, but it was still him. “I need to get a shower soon, I feel all gross and sandy,” Michael said, as if on cue.

“I’ll come with you,” Jeremy agreed. They finished up their sandwiches and grabbed their bags from the tent with a pair of clean clothes and some soap. Thank god the campground had a bathroom with a shower house, otherwise they would have been screwed.

It was a short walk from where their tent was, but the shower house looked...well, disgusting. It looked disgusting. The white paint on the outside had faded and been stained, broken up by cracks in the walls. It looked like at one point there had been flowers surrounding the building, but they had died and turned to brown dry leaves. “Okay, this isn’t quite what I was expecting,” Jeremy said, looking up at the building nervously. If it was as gross inside, getting a shower was going to be hell.

“Maybe it looks better on the inside,” Michael said hopefully, stepping up to the door and cracking it open. “Hey, it doesn’t smell bad at least.” He stepped inside and Jeremy followed reluctantly. There were no sounds of running water, so Jeremy assumed none of the showers were occupied and he peeked inside the first curtain he saw. It was filthy. The floor was muddy and sand covered the inside of the shower.

“This is awful,” he said, trying to slam the curtain shut. He moved on to the next one, which was just as disgusting.

“I found a clean one, so I’m going to take it,” Michael said, shutting a curtain behind him. Jeremy examined the rest of the stalls, unable to find one that was even remotely clean.

“Michael,” Jeremy called out. “I can’t find a clean one.”

“Ha, sucks for you,” came his response, and then the sound of water turned on.

Would it be weird if he asked Michael to share a shower? It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other naked before, and now that they were being more...open, it couldn’t be that weird. “Hey, Michael, I was just thinking,” Jeremy started. “What if we just shared this shower?”

“Oh,” he heard Michael say, muffled by the sound of the water. “Oh yeah. That’s okay.”

Jeremy stepped in through the curtain and started stripping his clothes. There was a second curtain hanging in front of the actual shower, so Jeremy had to awkwardly pull it back before he could step in. “Okay. This is okay,” Jeremy said to himself once they were face to face, warm water running over them. “This still doesn’t mean we’re dating, right?” Michael shook his head, drops of water flinging off of the tips. “Just two friends sharing a shower because we’re comfortable with ourselves. Right?”

“Right.” Michael went back to scrubbing his hair, forming bubbles all over his black hair. “I never noticed before how nice your body is,” Michael said through a breathy laugh, like he was nervous to say it.

“I thought you were more interested in surfer dudes with abs and floppy hair,” Jeremy said, but it came out bitter.

“Yeah, that’s nice too, but I always thought I wasn’t really...allowed to look at you that way. Cause you’re my best friend and I thought you’d be weirded out.” Michael rinsed out his hair, running his fingers through it. Jeremy watched intently, curiously. “Anyways, I’m glad you said you feel the same, because I never would have been able to say it to you if you hadn’t said it first. And now that we’ve got that all cleared up, I can do things like this…” Michael dropped some shampoo onto his hands and started massaging Jeremy’s hair. “Without worrying that I’m gonna fuck us up somehow.”

Jeremy grabbed a washcloth and poured on some soap, then started carefully washing off Michael’s skin. Over his shoulders, down the dip of his collarbone, over his chest.

Even though they were both completely naked, standing skin to skin in a steamy shower, washing each other down with mango scented soap, there was something innocent about the whole situation. Because this wasn’t about sex or tension, it was about swallowing their pride and letting go enough to take care of each other. And it was the most freeing thing Jeremy had ever felt.

“Let me do your back, you’ve probably still got sunscreen sticking to you,” Michael said, so Jeremy turned around, facing the wall. He felt the soft rag running over his skin, traveling down his spine. “Is it warm enough?”

“Yeah, it’s nice,” Jeremy said. “I just can’t believe you use mango soap.”

“We could have used your soap.”

“Yeah, well your soap was already in here. It was convenient.” Jeremy let Michael finish up with washing off his back. “Okay. Now I’ve gotta get your back.” Michael turned around and Jeremy paused for a few moments, taking in the view. His spine poked out just a little bit, and Jeremy ran the washcloth over each indent. His shoulders were broad, strong. So pretty.

They rinsed off, soap and sand and saltwater swirling down the drain. They took turns drying each other off, taking their time because they didn’t want it to end even though they both knew they’d be doing the same thing the next night. Michael’s hair was still wet, dripping down over his face and leaving water droplets on his skin and t-shirt.

When they got back to the tent, Jeremy didn’t hesitate to climb into Michael’s sleeping bag, huddling up next to him to stay warm.

And if they shared a few questioning kisses while the only thing between them and the stars was the thin canvas of the tent, they didn’t need to talk about it. 


End file.
